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Jim Henson
Jim Henson (September 24th, 1936 - May 16th, 1990) was the creator of the Muppets. One of Jim Henson's most famous characters, who he also designed and built, is Kermit the Frog, whom he had performed for 35 years. More of Jim Henson's more famous characters include Ernie, Guy Smiley, Rowlf the Dog, Dr. Teeth, The Swedish Chef, Waldorf, Convincing John, & Cantus the Minstrel. Jim Henson preformed on Sesame Street until 1989 which was his last season. At his memorial Caroll Spinney as Big Bird sang It's Not Easy Being Green. The Muppet Christmas Carol was dedicated to Henson and Richard Hunt. Sesame Street In 1969 Joan Ganz Cooney & the newly-formed Children's Television Workshop approached Henson about creating & performing puppets on a new show aimed at pre-schoolers. The show would become Sesame Street, & it introduced viewers to such memorable characters as Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch, Count von Count, Ernie & Bert, Cookie Monster, Grover, & eventually Elmo as well. Jim Henson was initially reluctant to use his characters on an educational kids' series, for fear of being typecast as a children's entertainer. However, Joan Ganz Cooney, once remarked that while the show's creative team had a collective brilliance, Henson was the only "individual genius.": "He was our era's Charlie Chaplin, Mae West, W.C. Fields & Marx Brothers," Cooney said, "& indeed he drew from all of them to create a new art form that influenced popular culture around the world." By the late-1970s/early 1980s, he became more involved w/ other projects, & he mainly just voiced his characters in inserts rather than in main street plots. However, he was still involved in related productions, voicing his characters in the 1st Sesame Street movie, Follow That Bird, performing his characters' voices in various Sesame Street Live shows, & also performing in Christmas Eve on Sesame Street, Big Bird in China, Don't Eat the Pictures, The Sesame Street Special, & Sesame Street: 20 & Still Counting. In the last production mentioned, Henson also appeared as himself in 2 scenes. He was also interviewed on The Sesame Street Experiment & Sing! Sesame Street Remembers Joe Raposo & His Music. Jim Henson's last segments for the show were taped on November 21, 1989. Henson's later performances include a Sesame Street News Flash segment in which Kermit interviews a bird whose parents live in different trees, Kermit's song "I Wonder 'Bout the World Above Up There", & Ernie's song "Don't Throw That Trash on the Ground". The Muppet Show Henson always felt that puppetry should be for all ages, including adults, & he was frustrated that Sesame Street, even with its appeal to adults, was still children's programming. The Muppets were labeled "kiddie entertainment" by network executives. His agent Bernie Brillstein got him as an act on season 1 of the groundbreaking SNL w/ the Land of Gorch, but w/ the content not written by his staff & w/ certain cast members annoyed of sharing the show w/ puppets, Henson never felt right there. Fortunately, he received another break when Lord Lew Grade invited him to produce a proposed half-hour show in England. The resulting Muppet Show became 1 of the most successful TV shows of all time. Also, in addition to Kermit as the host, the show featured characters that would quickly become household names, such as Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Gonzo the Great, Rizzo the Rat, Statler & Waldorf, Dr. Bunsen Honeydew & Beaker, & Dr. Teeth & the Electric Mayhem. Performers who joined Henson's ever-growing team during this period include Dave Goelz, Steve Whitmire, & Louise Gold. Henson created another innovation starting w/ The Muppet Show: from now on, all productions would be platformed up, so that humans could move about freely & interact convincingly w/ the puppets, while the puppeteers could remain easily hidden, & move about their environment w/ even greater fluidity than before. In 1979, Jerry Juhl described Henson's unique working style in an article about the making of The Muppets Go Hollywood special: "The assistants are running around screaming, 'How are we ever going to do all this?' & Jim is wandering around in the middle of it all, perfectly calm, perfectly content. You go to him & ask, 'How's it going?' & he says, 'Oh, fine. There were hardly any airplanes overhead when we filmed Miss Piggy by the pool.' He's just like Kermit -- if The Muppet Show had a basketball team, the score would always be Frog 99, Chaos 98." The Muppet Show was so successful that it spawned 3 movies during Henson's lifetime (& more since): The Muppet Movie, The Great Muppet Caper, & The Muppets Take Manhattan. Each film provided him w/ further opportunities to break technological barriers, including letting Kermit ride a bike. Fraggle Rock In 1983, Henson introduced a new show for children called Fraggle Rock. The show was concerned with promoting understanding across cultures & around the world, a subject that was very important to him. Henson was the guiding force in developing the concept for the series, which began with his own notes for "The Woozle World" scribbled on a small pad. Later, in collaboration with such team members as Jerry Juhl & Jocelyn Stevenson, this extended to specific personality details coining & character names (with Boober named after a cow encountered by Henson's daughters). As Henson defined the series' purpose in that first draft, "What the show is really about is people getting along with other people, & understanding the delicate balance of the natural world. These are topics that can be dealt with in a symbolic way, which is what puppets basically do all the time." From the beginning, Henson also insisted that the show be tailored for different countries, so that the message about brotherhood & understanding conflicting cultures could be spread to as many nations as possible. This led to co-productions, with involvements ranging from completely new frame sequences tailored to each nation to unique Uncle Traveling Matt postcard inserts, to simple dialogue dubs. Although very much involved in the series as a creator, & serving as a director on several episodes, by this point Jim Henson was becoming increasingly "hands-off" as a performer & beginning to look at ambitious "realistic" puppet projects, instead assigning the regular roles to The Muppet Show veterans as well as up-and-comers & Canadian talent. However, his very occasional appearances on Fraggle Rock showcased two scene-stealing characters, the enigmatic, "implacably calm" Cantus the Minstrel, who represented Henson's Zen-like beliefs & musical interests, & the flamboyant, fast-talking Convincing John, representing Henson's more frenetic, showman qualities. Henson & Oz's friendship After working together for so many years, every 1 of Henson's fellow Muppeteers eventually grew very close to him in no time at all. However, the man that it is quite clear Henson was always closest w/ was Frank Oz, cause of the incredible partnership & friendship that they shared. There have been countless occasions where Henson's characters were paired up w/ Oz's characters. While it was actually Richard Hunt who voiced Statler to Jim Henson's Waldorf, (the famous hecklers from The Muppet Show), the friendship that Henson & Oz shared was the best in the whole Muppet business. At his Memorial Service, 5 short days after Jim's death, Frank speaks of a Christmas gift Jim gave him, which he called "Bert in Self-Contemplation". He starts to cry but manages to say "That's when I knew, he loved me & I loved him." Henson's Death & Legacy In late 1989, Jim Henson made a radical change in his career. Wanting to become less of a businessman & focus more on the creative side of the production, he entered into talks w/ Michael Eisner to sell his company & characters (minus Sesame Street) to the Walt Disney Company. After Henson's sudden & untimely death, negotiations went awry, & Disney didn't acquire the Muppets till February 2004, which it now controls through the wholly owned subsidiary The Muppets Studio. Jim became infected w/ a very rare bacterium called Group A streptococcus in May 1990 that was discovered too late for him to receive proper treatment. He died at 1:21 a.m. on Wednesday, May 16th, 1990, approximately 20 hours & 23 minutes after checking himself into the emergency room at New York Hospital, not realizing how sick he really was. Steve Whitmire then took over for Kermit, only months after Jim passed away, then he took over for Ernie in 1993 to Frank Oz's Bert on Sesame Street. Waldorf, in 1992, had been taken over by Dave Goelz. Starting in 1991 the role of Dr. Teeth had been officially taken over by John Kennedy, however, the character only had made brief appearances with very little dialogue. However, following his death, Rowlf was kept completely silent until episode 2 of Muppets Tonight, on which he broke that silence thanks to the vocal help of Bill Barretta, who now voices the Swedish Chef, Mahna Mahna & Dr. Teeth, as of 2005, as well as Rowlf primarily as of 1996. According to FindAGrave.com, Henson was cremated, & his ashes were scattered at his ranch outside Santa Fe, New Mexico. Jim Henson's legacy is carried on in different forms today. Sesame Workshop (formerly the Children's Television Workshop) owns all the Sesame Street characters & continues to experiment with its format. However, in 2001, they lost the rights to Kermit, as he was mainly part of the Muppets. As noted, the Walt Disney Company owns the Muppet characters & continues to use them in new productions. Fortunately, the Jim Henson Company itself, under the guidance of Henson's children Brian, Lisa, & Cheryl, John, & Heather, continues to release new material, including Creature Shop films & original content. Muppeteer Credits *''The Muppet Show'' characters: Balloon-Head Conductor, Beaver (217), Black Rooster (303), Blue Frackle (203), Brown Bear, 1 of the Bun-Bun Brother, Butch (416), Dancers, Doglion (224), Droop (115), Dr. Teeth (1975 - 1990), The Eel (124), Flower-Eating Monster, 1 of the Fazoobs, Frog (puppetry), Fuzz Brother, 1 of the Gills Brother, Green Heap, Green Frackle (occasionally in season 1), Hillbilly Singer, Jim, Kermit the Frog (1955 - 1990), Kermit the Protozoa, Lenny the Lizard (204), Link Hogthrob (1977 - 1990), Lefty, Mahna Mahna, Mary Louise (121), Mean Mama (203), Miss Kitty (113), 1 of the Muppaphone, The Newsman (1976-1990), The Newspig, Nigel (1975 - 1976), Penguins (423), Pigs, Prairie Dogs, Robot Kermit, Rover Joe (occasional), Rowlf the Dog (1962 - 1990), The Scientist, Silver Beak, Slim Wilson (413), The Swedish Chef (1976 - 1990), Timmy Monster (occasionally), Waldorf (1975 - 1990), Wally, Wally Whoopie, Whatnots, Zeke (1977 - 1978, 1983) *''Sesame Street'' characters: Anything Muppets, an apple from "Bilingual Fruit Song", As I Was Going to St. Ives boy, Baby Monster (1969), Bad Bart, Barry Rhymie, Beautiful Day Monster, Beginning, Ben, Betty Lou (occasional), Big Jeffy (in a sketch where he demonstrates scatting), Billy Monster, Bip Bippadotta, Captain Vegetable, Charlie (occasionally), Dan, Ernie (1969 - 1990), Father, Fenwick, Flakey, The Geefle, The Genie (1973), George Washington ("The American Revolution"), Grandmother Happy, Granny Fanny Nesselrode, Grover (1970 "Near & Far" sketch), Guy Smiley (1969 - 1990), Harold Happy, Harvey Monster (occasional), Henry, Herman the Hoppity-Hop, Herry Monster (1970), Hippie (1969), J Friend Singer, Kermit the Frog (1955 - 1990), The King, King Gerry the Generous, King Peter the Persnickety, Lance, Lavender "Fat Cat" performer, Librarian, Little Bird (1969), Little Chrissy (puppetry), Lost & Found Clerk, Marvin, Maurice, Maurice, Maurice Monster (occasionally), Mr. Essex, Mr. Johnson (early segments), Mr. Nose, Old King Cole's Band Fat Blue fiddler & Pumpkin bass player, Pat Playjacks, Pokey, Salvador Dada, Sam, Sammy the Snake (1984), Scudge (1969), Showered Rosell, Sinister Sam, Sneaky, 1 of Singing Dentist (puppetry), Spaceship Surprise Captain, Stan, Thomas Twiddlebug, Three Little Pigs, Tony, Warren Wolf, Witch, Yellow Submarine Fat Blue train engineer, Yip Yip Martians, Zizzy Zoomer *''Sam and Friends: Kermit the Frog, Sam, Professor Madcliffe, Harry the Hipster, Omar, Pierre the French Rat, Yorick, others *Commercials: Wilkins and Wontkins, Scoop and Skip, Mack, Baskerville the Hound, Delbert the La Choy Dragon (voice), Kermit the Frog, Sir Linit, The Southern Colonel, Arnold, Fred, Nutty Bird, Sour Bird, Kenner Gooney Bird, Boy Twin, Tommy and Fred, Sneegle *Tales of the Tinkerdee: Charlie the Ogre *TV Appearances: The Floating Face *The Ed Sullivan Show: Amanda, Beautiful Day Monster, Talking Machine, Business Business Creatures (Blue Monster, Orange Creature), Conrad Love, Dasher, Donner, The Glutton, Thudge, proto-Cookie Monster. *The Wizard of Id: The Wizard, The Spook *The Great Santa Claus Switch: Fred the Elf, Lothar *Tales from Muppetland: King Goshposh, King Rupert the Second, Mean Floyd *Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass: Gonzo (non-speaking), Hoggie Marsh *Muppet Meeting Films: Leo, Kermit the Frog (1975 appearance) *SNL: King Ploobis *The Muppet Show: Sex & Violence: George Washington, Hudson, Nigel, Waldorf, Dr. Teeth, Kermit the Frog *Emmet Otter's Jug Band Christmas: Kermit the Frog, Harrison Fox, Harvey Beaver, Howard Snake *Fraggle Rock: Cantus the Minstrel & Convincing John *The Dark Crystal: SkekZok (puppetry), Jen (puppetry), SkekSo (puppetry) *Christmas Eve on Sesame Street: Kermit the Frog and Ernie *The Muppet Movie: Kermit the Frog, Dr. Teeth, Rowlf the Dog, Waldorf, The Swedish Chef *The Great Muppet Caper: Kermit the Frog, Dr. Teeth, Rowlf the Dog, Waldorf, The Swedish Chef, The Newsman *The Muppets Take Manhattan: Kermit the Frog, Ernie, Dr. Teeth, Rowlf the Dog, Waldorf, The Swedish Chef, The Newsman, Baby Kermit, Baby Rowlf, Penguins *Follow That Bird: Kermit the Frog and Ernie *Playhouse Video: Kermit the Frog, Dr. Teeth, Rowlf the Dog, Waldorf, The Swedish Chef *The Christmas Toy: Kermit the Frog, Jack-in-the-Box *Labyrinth: One of the Goblins (puppetry) *The Tale of the Bunny Picnic: Dog *A Muppet Family Christmas: Kermit the Frog, Ernie, Dr. Teeth, Rowlf the Dog, Waldorf, The Swedish Chef, The Newsman, Guy Smiley, & a penguin *Down at Fraggle Rock: Behind the Scenes: Doozer (demonstration) *The Jim Henson Hour: Kermit the Frog, Dr. Teeth, Link Hogthrob, The Swedish Chef, Timecaster, Teddy Bear, Garbage Bags, Timrek the Gorf, Screaming No-Nos, various demonstrations in "Secrets of the Muppets" *Dog City: Rowlf the Dog and Bugsy Them *The Muppets at Walt Disney World: Kermit the Frog, Dr. Teeth, Rowlf the Dog, Waldorf, The Swedish Chef, and Link Hogthrob *Sing Yourself Silly!'': Kermit the Frog, Ernie, Lead Singer from One Banana Henson, Jim Henson, Jim Henson, Jim